Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The fix

The grand rort that is the pokies industry looks to have little to fear from what has become of the Maori Party's attempt to curtail the excesses of the inherently corrupt gambling regime.

Stuff:
--The Government is promising more reform of non-casino gambling after a watered-down bill was reported back to Parliament yesterday. Internal Affairs Minister Chris Tremain and Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell are due to announce a harm-minimisation package tomorrow. That comes after a weakened version of Mr Flavell's Gambling Harm Reduction Bill was reported back from the commerce select committee.[...]The bill aimed to return the proceeds of pokie machines to the communities they were made in and give local authorities more control over gambling operations. But the committee rejected the plan to return 80 per cent of profits, instead allowing for regulations to ensure more of the proceeds returned to the same geographical area. It also ruled out imposing the use of pre-commitment, player tracking, or other harm-minimisation devices, saying it would be "premature to mandate specific approaches". And it ruled out removing horse racing from the list that could receive gambling profits. Labour reserved its decision on supporting the bill but the Greens will now vote against it.
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The regulations are bullshit because it lets in the likes of former National Minister, Paul East - the pokies lobbiest - to get in the ear of the Minister and get everything their way. Without firm statutory limits the regulations could be piss weak and will be piss weak - just the way they want it.

The fundamentally conflicted relationships and motivations between publicans, their manufactured "charities" and the politicians culminate in effectively siphoning off millions each year from the poorer communities into the wealthier communities. The cause of these pokie parasites is not being addressed by the bill.

NRT observes:
--Meanwhile, the Labour Party did not issue a minority report on the bill, and instead "reserve[d] its position". Clayton Cosgrove was on the committee. Clayton Cosgrove was also in SkyCity's corporate box last week. You can draw your own conclusions from that.
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It is apparent why this corruption has gone unchecked for so many years, despite the many cases, when both major parties are in on the fix.